Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Fear of the Dark
by 21Taipan13
Summary: A larvitar wakes up on a beach with no muscle memory and only vague memories of a voice asking him questions. Who is he? What is he? Where is he? All questions he desperately wants to know the answers to.
1. Prologue: The Void

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Noise, pain, and darkness. These three things are the only things he remembered before nothing. A loud horn and a screech, an all consuming pain, and a neverending; consistent darkness. Only one thought flowed through him; fear, fear of the unknown, fear of the dark. The dark swallowed him, shrouding him in itself. He couldn't escape the fear, he couldn't escape the dark. Time that he couldn't consciously observe passed. Not a long time, but in the face of the fear; an eternity.

...

A light, small and piercing. It punctured through, giving him reprieve from the darkness. He needed the light, he wouldn't go back to the fear. Using nothing, no legs to walk on or arms to drag himself with, he moved towards the light. It grew as he got closer, asking him questions without a mouth to speak with. Questions he couldn't answer himself, and yet the light seemed content with only his thoughts to answer.

"Do you know who or what you are?" asked the light in a loud, but calming voice.

_... No... I don't,_ he answered in his thoughts.

"Do you remember anything at all? Of your past or present?" it continued.

_... Nothing but some noise, pain, and the darkness,_ he returned.

"I see... do you mind if I ask some questions for clarity's sake?" the light asked more solemnly.

_... You already did,_ he thought without pause.

A booming laugh arose from the light, "**Ho ho ho **so I did! Nevertheless, I will continue with the questions," it said returning to its calm voice.

"What would you say you value more, money or friendship?"

_Friendship,_ he returned unhesitantly, _money never lasts, but a good friend can last a life time._

"Good, good," the voice slowed as if taking note of his answer, "Now If you were given the choice between ratting someone you considered an enemy out for doing something wrong, or trying to reason with them to not do it again, which would you choose?"

_... if it was the first time they did the wrong thing I'd want to reason with them if I could, but if they continued doing it I'd probably rat them out,_ he responded.

"Hm, reasonable enough. Now between raw physical strength and courageous mental strength, which do you believe to be stronger?"

_... Raw strength is great, but if you have no courage to back it up..._ he trailed off.

"Yes? Please continue," the voiced requested.

_If you have no courage to back it up... you can give into your fears more easily,_ he finished.

"Do you find yourself scared of many things?" The light questioned.

_... No, but... when I'm scared of something, I'm usually so scared I can't act against it,_ he answered.

"Hm... yes, yes, I see he didn't make a bad choice; I definitely see promise in you," the voice said. "Well that should be enough for the questions, I have the answers I need, seems you'd be the..."

The light began wavering and the voice along with it, allowing the darkness to begin creeping its way to cover him again.

"And for the one as your partner, to stay with..."

He couldn't respond. The return of the darkness meant the return of his fear. He struggled to keep close to the light, trying to keep it from leaving him, but all he did was in vain as the light continued wavering.

"I see, and well it looks like our time here is about done, it's time for you to be off. You'll find me eventually I'm sure, and I'll answer what questions for you that I can then. But for now just know you will have to endure through great trials; the likes of which even your past can't compete. Stay strong and we'll meet again," the voice finished warmly.

With that the light completely vanished. The cold abyss of the darkness wrapped around him once again as he froze in terror. All he could do in that time was return to waiting in his fear, in his darkness.

...

Until suddenly the light returned brighter than before. It completely evaporated the darkness all around him, bathing the matter forming around him in light. He watched as the dull green shell formed around him, allowing him to fill it and make it his own. He turned his attention back towards the light to see it had expanded to go beyond just pure light, and formed scenery. An island, or rather the sky far above an island. Suddenly a force quickly whisked him out of what was left of the void he was in and into the gorgeous scenery that laid out before him. He could see lush fields, barren deserts, and thick forests all around the island from his view above it all. It quickly plunged him down, a red banded belly still forming on the new body that was being created. Looking down he noticed he wasn't over the island itself, but over the ocean surrounding it. Just as his pom pom like tail finished forming and his new body was complete, the force stopped him only a couple hundred feet above the water. Then suddenly and without warning, it slung him towards the beach in front of him at the same speed he'd fallen, but now with his body fully formed, he could feel the wind whisking past him at an astounding rate. As he slowly began losing altitude, he almost wanted to scream in fear of the approaching land, but he couldn't get his throat to make a sound.

_**THUMPSSSSS**_

Everything went black as he slammed head first into the sand of the beach, sliding a short distance face down afterwards.

* * *

This is my first attempt at any kind of writing, so if anyone has some tips to help out I'd appreciate it. This is just the prologue chapter and I'm going to try to release the first REAL chapter by Sunday the 19th of Jan 2020. The night of my 21st birthday has been a trip. Also if anyone knows who owns the pic of the larvitar I've currently got set as the placeholder image for this fic, lemme know so I can give credit.

Update 1/19/20 WELL I'M NOT GONNA HAVE THE CHAPTER OUT TODAY! Have a small edit instead while I try to learn multiple things and finish the first chapter tomorrow instead!


	2. Chapter 1: Life's a Beach

Images passed by his vision as he slept. Vague silhouettes of figures talking to him, laughing at him, taunting him. Voices he recognized but couldn't place, speaking a language familiar to him yet foreign. He vaguely saw what he thought was a dream of himself talking to a bright light that freed him from a perpetual darkness. A cold feeling on his legs stirred him from his slumber. The warmth of the sun on his back and the sand beneath him. A sound caught his attention as he clumsily rolled himself on to his side and opened his eyes. He looked down past himself to see the cold water from a small wave lap against his feet and legs. As he stared he finally noticed himself. A rotund red belly poked out, barely allowing him to even see his feet. A green rough looking skin covered him everywhere he could see. This wasn't right, he thought, he knew this wasn't how he should look. Before he could continue his thoughts he noticed another wave approaching him. Not another small wave that would lap at his feet, he knew this wave was going to cover him. He tried to move himself, only to find his legs and arms refusing to move as he thought they should. They were much too short, he felt like his arms should be able to push through and beyond the small green stubs that were protruding from him. He managed to roll himself back onto his belly and tried to use the small claws on the ends of his feet to crawl across the sand, but his feet still wouldn't obey him. The wave crashed into him, covering his world in water and tumbling him over himself as he was propelled across the previously dry sand he was laying on. He felt the sand come back underneath him just as the wave started to recede, trying to drag him along with it. He struggled as hard as he could to embed his tiny hands and feet in the sand as to not be tossed further into the deep water behind him. He barely managed, using more his weight than any power through his arms or legs, to keep himself against the sand as the water returned and was absorbed by the hot sand. He crawled on his belly as fast as he could, using as much power as possible from himself to try and get away from the water before it could attempt to claim him again.

A good distance up the beach, he finally stopped to let his arms and legs rest from the burning pain he felt from straining himself so hard to get away from the ocean. His lungs screamed at him as he coughed up the water he swallowed when the wave took him over. He slumped back onto his side when he'd finished clearing his lungs of the salt water, breathing heavily to try and calm his burning muscles. After resting there for a minute and catching his breath he looked down to see he'd only moved maybe ten feet up the beach from where he was before. He took a deep breath and sighed loudly as he closed his eyes and started trying to think to himself again. What was wrong about him? He could swear this wasn't his body, but he didn't know what his body should look like. He tried to remember anything, but trying to remember only seemed to hurt; not like a headache, but instead stabbing pains across his body. He remembered a loud sound, something he also couldn't place, as the pain got too intense to bear. His eyes jumped open, looking around in a panic. He'd started breathing heavily again, but even then he wondered why memories could make him feel like this.

After a short time of steadying his breath again, he decided to try and get moving, hoping that would be more successful than trying to dig through his forgotten memories. He rolled himself onto his back and started slowly extending and retracting his legs, concentrating on trying to get a feel for their underwhelming length. After getting a basic feel for his legs length he started simulating walking with them, pedaling them in circles to try and get the pattern for it stuck in his head. He didn't know how long passed doing this, but he knew it took him a long time. He'd decided he'd wait until he could do 20 cycles in a row, and every time he felt like he would've stumbled if he was standing, he started over. After taking a few breaks to rest himself he finally managed to please himself with how well his legs were working. He knew that if he could get himself stood upright, he could try and make it somewhere. He rolled over onto his belly and pulled his still uncooperative arms towards his chest, and his legs into his belly. In one quick but clumsy motion he attempted to push himself onto his feet. Immediately he knew he pushed too far as he started to fall backwards. He flailed his arms around randomly to try and stabilize himself to no avail.

_**FHUMP**_

He fell onto his back hard; hitting his head against the, thankfully, soft sand in the process. It hurt a bit, but the sand did soften most of the impact; leaving him with more of a dizzy feeling than anything else. He shook his rattled head to relieve the dizzying feeling and rolled himself back onto his belly. He knew that if he never got moving he'd never make it anywhere as he attempted to mentally prepare himself for another try. Once again, he pulled his arms and legs again and attempted to push himself standing, with much less power this time. This time he didn't push himself hard enough and landed face first in the sand with a soft thump. Without taking a break and losing his motivation again, he quickly tried the maneuver for a third time, using a little more push than his last try. He was almost perfectly up until he realized he'd not quite pushed hard enough again. He quickly took a step forward and flailed his arms around again trying to stabilize himself. Success, finally, he thought to himself as he managed to barely keep his balance.

He looked around to try and finally get an upright idea for his surroundings. In front of him was the ocean that gave him such a rude awakening. Obviously not the way to go, as he could barely walk and didn't want to think about trying to swim. Slowly and carefully, he turned himself around to see what was behind him. A short rocky cliff, only about his height, stretched across the length of the beach as far as he could see. He sighed and shook his head in annoyance. He knew it was either swimming or climbing this short cliff. Neither sounded like a great time, but his choice was obvious as he started walking towards the cliff. Upon walking up to it he looked left and right down the cliff to try and see if there was a spot that looked easier to scale. A short distance down to his left he saw a small pile of rocks he thought he could stand on to try and make things easier. He propped his right foot up on the smallest rock in the pile and pushed himself onto it, losing balance and having to try again a few times. Finally up on the smallest rock, he was already about a third of the way up the small cliff. The next two rocks were stacked on top of each other in a way that would make it very difficult to ascend, were it not for the small metal thorn poking out of the crevice between the two rocks.

"Aa ee-yuh," he said to himself. Wait, what did he just say? He swore that he tried to say "that's convenient," but that's definitely not what came out. He stopped for a moment trying to speak, only to realize that the same issue he was having with his unfamiliar arms and legs was also happening with his speech. He grunted, aggravated, knowing this would come to be another issue later on, but for now he needed to finish his climb up this cliff. He grabbed onto the small spike jutting out with his right hand and started trying to pull himself up. He found a small foothold that he could barely get his large, single clawed left foot to position on properly. He pulled himself up a bit and managed to reach his other hand up to a small concave dent in the rock. He tried to carefully pull his right foot up to the crevice so he could move his right hand up to the top of the higher rock, when suddenly his left foot gave way. His momentum made him slam into the rock, hitting his right arm against the rock in an awkward way as he felt the metal spike disappear from his hand. He fell back, landing back first on the rock he was standing on and bouncing off of it, landing on his right arm again as he hit the ground. "Eeeeeh," he grunted as he pushed himself back up and off his arm. It wasn't broken, but it definitely wasn't in great shape. After a quick moment the pain of it disappeared though... only for him to look down and see the metal spike sticking out of his lower right gut. It was buried deep, all that was visible was the opposite end of the spike where two other sharp protrusions kept the rest of the spike from going in. A dark, thick, black-red blood poured out from the wound, with a smell of oil filling his nostrils. After the shock finally wore off, the pain filled him quickly. His eyes widened as tears started to fill them and he started shaking profusely. He breathed in deeply once again, then...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-AH-AHHH-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," he screamed loud enough to make his ears ring. He reached down with his right hand to touch the wound. The pain immediately flooded through him again, with him barely able to contain another blood curdling scream. He fell back into a seated position, struggling to think of what to do through the pain. His first thought was to pull the spike out, but no he knew that would only make the internal bleeding worse. What he needed to do was find help as fast as possible. He forced himself up through the pain and started to look at the rocks he'd attempted to climb. His mind raced as he tried to decide whether he should try and climb the rocks again. Knowing he had no choice but to try and make it as fast as he could, he immediately started attempting the climb again. The pain was terrible, but his adrenaline kept him moving as he got onto the lowest rock again. He positioned himself to climb the second set of rocks that had been his downfall again, this time instead of using the missing metal spike to climb he slid his right arm along the gap where it was and managed to find a hand hold there. Instead of just resting his foot in the small foothold again, this time he decided to kick into it, stabbing his claw in to cement himself better. This time he successfully managed to pull his right leg up to meet his arm in the gap. After this he pulled his other foot up and finally was only one rock away from the top of the cliff. He immediately began to try and scramble up the last rock, wincing as waves of pain hit him. He found spots for each of his legs and pushed himself up, scraping against the rock with his hands to pull himself up the rest of the way. Once at the top it was a simple step from the top of the rock to the edge of the cliff.

In front of him was a thin layer of trees, and he could see what looked to be a clearing beyond them before what seemed to be a dense forest. He hoped that maybe it could be someone's house, and made his way in. He entered the small clearing to see only a small tree standing in the middle. Some kind of fruit tree he noticed, with several berries scattered below it. At this point he finally realized he was starving, as a massive wave of pain hit him from the adrenaline starting to wear off. He shambled over to the small tree and sat underneath it. To his left he spotted a small blue berry-like fruit and picked it up. He knew at this point he had nothing to lose. The pain was much worse now that the adrenaline was gone, too great for him to move. He noticed he'd left a trail of disgusting oil-like blood from the cliff to where he sat. He took a large bite out of the berry as he leaned back against the tree. Almost immediately after, the pain started to subside. He looked down at the wound to see that blood had stopped pouring out, as if the wound tried to heal around the spike. He took another bite out of the little blue berry, wondering if it was making him hallucinate. He didn't care, he just knew he was hungry and the pain wasn't mind numbing anymore. His eye lids started to feel heavy as he realized he was just as tired as he was hungry. With the pain gone he finally felt at ease. How long had it been since he woke up? A few hours at most, but from his toil he was completely exhausted. He took another bite out of the berry, noticing it was almost gone at this point. He settled himself in under the tree and finished the rest of his berry. The thought of staying awake at this point felt like a greater challenge than he'd already faced that day. His eye lids slowly started to close as he knew he couldn't stay awake any longer.

"It had to have come from somewhere around here!" a voice that sounded male called out. He didn't think he was asleep yet, but the dreams already started, he thought.

"Even if it did, don't you think it might be a bad idea to go running into a mystery dungeon? If someone needs help, there'll be a post on the request board soon anyway," said a more feminine voice.

"We're REP guild members!" retorted the first voice, "It's our job to try and help people as fast as possible right? Besides that scream sounded crazy, someone might be in real trouble!"

He knew he wasn't dreaming, he was still awake and someone was nearby. He was so tired, he didn't want to open his eyes; and yet he knew if he still had a chance he needed to wake up.

"It's pointless to try and change your mind," the female voice said sighing, "fine, we look for a minute but if we don't find anything we hea-," the voice stopped.

He finally managed to get his eyes to flicker open, and saw two strange animals in front of him. A strange grey bipedal cat with huge, circular, beady eyes stared right at him, with a small yellow fox with red tufts of fur sticking out of it's ears standing next to it.

"What, cat got your tongue?" said the male voice.

The strange cat looked at the small fox with a look of contempt. It then pointed over to the small tree he sat beneath. He second guessed as to whether or not he was dreaming, then wondered if possibly he was hallucinating. Something about this seemed like it wasn't possible, and yet nothing that day had made much sense.

"It's... a larvitar," said the female voice that he now knew came from the cat. "I told you this was pointless, now come on; let's go," she said as she started to walk away.

"Wait look!" the male voice coming from the fox said, "He's hurt! He must've been the one we heard!" he said hopping in front of her.

"Yes, and he's a _larvitar_. He's feral, which means if we try to help him he's going to try and eat us," she said forcefully.

"You don't know that, besides if we help him maybe we can recruit him!" the fox said excitedly; jumping up and down in place.

He was confused, and still so exhausted. He tried to get up but couldn't find the energy. He just stared at them with exhausted, pleading eyes as they conversed in front of him.

"What, you want to go up and ask it if it's a sane mon? Be my guest, I'm not going anywhere near that thing," the cat said crossing its arms and turning away.

"Fine, I will," said the fox as it started walking towards the tree. The cat turned back, somehow wider eyed than before with it's mouth partially open as the fox continued his walk. "Hey there little, uh, guy? Sorry I'm not really sure, your kind aren't exactly common around here," he said with an awkward laugh, "but are you okay? Do you need any help?" the fox asked with a smile.

Using what little energy he could muster, he pushed himself off the tree to sit up, noticing although not incredibly painful his right side was sore from his gut wound. He opened his mouth to try and say anything, anything remotely like a language.

"...se he... e," was all he could manage from his voice, struggling against him as he spoke.

"You see now?" said the female voice from her spot further away, "Larvitars are always feral, now lets get out of here before it attacks us," she said turning away again.

His eyes widened as she started to walk away. "...o... t... ve... e" he croaked out. He could feel himself slipping away to sleep again as he started to slump to the ground.

The fox stared at him for a moment before starting to turn away, "Yeah yeah, I'd still rather say I tried than say I did nothing," he said as he started to walk back to the cat.

His frustration from the day finally overcame him as tears began to well up in his eyes, the two continuing to walk away. He needed his voice to obey him, just for this once, he needed to say something. He couldn't be left alone here, he wouldn't be left alone here.

"Guild Master Glenda is going to want to know why it took us so long to get back you know," the cat said as the fox walked past her. She followed after them as they began to leave the clearing, "you'd better have a good explanation ready for her."

"I know, I know, I'll explain it to her when we get-"

"WAAAAAAAAAIIIIT!" he screamed from back at the tree.

The fox and the cat turned back to look at him just in time for him to collapse to his side. Finally the sleep claimed him, having used the last of his energy to yell out one word.

* * *

So, first real chapter. Get ready for grammatical errors, and let me know when you see any (apart from the obviously intentional errors)! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the prologue, and thanks to everyone who followed it (100% didn't expect anyone to read just the prologue, so that's pretty cash money). Honestly not even sure if this is enough to count as a proper chapter, but still definitely let me know what you guys think! Love to hear it, and I'm going to try and keep up with any dms or what not since apparently some stuff went on that I wasn't expecting while I was absent. Anyway hope you enjoyed it, and it looks like every other week is going to be a bit better, but tbh it really just depends on how often I get the motivation to write. See you when I see you!


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